Samsung UN65KS9800 vs UN65KS9500 Review : What are their differences?

Samsung UN65KS9500 and UN65KS9800 are part of Top Model Samsung’s 2016 SUHD TV Lineup Series 9. Both of them come with curved panel claimed offer wider viewing angle than flat Panel. The highlight feature of them certainly is about HDR (High Dynamic Range) where this technology becomes a main focus of 4K TV’s world in 2016. They are including 4K TVs with best performance in HDR. It is confirmed by Ultra HD Premium Label Set by UHD Alliance. If there is LG OLED TV with deepest black level in 2016, both Samsung UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500 offer brightest peak brightness. But unlike other top model TVs from other manufacturers that comes with 3D technology, both of these Samsung 65 Inch Series 9 are not equipped with 3D technology and of course it become their own downside as the top model of big name like Samsung.

In the market, Samsung UN65KS9500 is sold about $2500 while UN65KS9800 is sold about $1000 more expensive. Of course, their difference in price cannot be said to be slightly because $1000 certainly can be used to buy a middle class 65 Inch 4K TV. But of course, their price is not fixed and could still change at any time. So, what are their differences and is their difference in price comparable with difference in features that offered by each? Let’s discuss in details one by one about them.

The Differences between Samsung UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500

There are some major and minor differences between them that makes Samsung UN65KS9800 is sold about $1000 more expensive than UN65KS9500. The impact is about picture quality especially on back level, peak brightness, and contrast. Because they are including most important aspects of picture quality, of course this will makes the picture displayed on UN65KS9800 looks more amazing and what displayed on the screen of UN65KS9500, although UN65KS9500 itself already delivers stunning picture quality in HDR or SDR.

Multi Zones Full Array LED Backlighting

It is the major difference between these Samsung 65 Inch Curved Series 9 where UN65KS9800 already powered by Multi Zones Full Array LED as its backlighting technology while UN65KS9500 uses Edge Lit backlighting. Both of them may be powered by local dimming technology, but of course the result is different. Talking about the result certainly we will talking about black level, peak brightness and contrast that produced by these technologies. As we know, the use of local dimming on Edge Lit backlighting will not as effective as on Full Array LED Backlighting. Additionally, the use of Full Array LED Backlighting also offers more even illumination and better black uniformity than Edge-Lit backlighting. This allows Samsung UN65KS9800 delivers deeper black level, brighter peak brightness and better black uniformity than Samsung UN65KS9500. Additionally, thanks to more even illumination, this as makes the color delivered by UN65KS9800 also looks more vibrant.

Precision Black

The other difference between Samsung UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500 is about the level of precision black technology. Samsung UN65KS9500 is powered by Standard Precision Black while UN65KS9800 is powered by Precision Black Pro. You need to know, Precision Back is the True local dimming technology by Samsung and it is not same UHD Dimming. Talking about the level of local dimming of course we will talk about the number of zones. And the more zones of local dimming of the TV, black level reached will deeper and contrast is also stronger. But unfortunately, Samsung did not specify exactly how many zones for each technology. But certainly, Precision black pro has more zones than standard precision black. And this will make black level reached by UN65KS9800 is deeper than UN65KS9500.

Peak Illuminator

Peak Illuminator is the Samsung’s proprietary technology designed for maximizing the peak of brightness. Both of Samsung UN65KS9500 and UN65KS9800 are also powered by Peak Illuminator Pro technology, the difference is about their level where Samsung UN65KS9800 is powered by Peak Illuminator Ultimate while UN65KS9500 is powered by Peak Illuminator Pro. Peak Illuminator Ultimate is usually for Full Array LED Backlighting while the Pro version is used for Samsung TV with Edge Lit Backlighting.

The Performance of Samsung UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500

Picture Quality

As mentioned, both of Samsung UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500 already support HDR 10 where for processing HDR 10 signals, it is powered by HDR 1000 Engine and the number of Samsung’s most advanced technologies. And we all may know HDR picture fully, it is required a certain standardization of display specs should be met by a HDR TV. For this case, HDR 10 need contrast range between 0.05 nits of black level to 1000 nits of peak brightness. While about color reproduction, HDR 10 needs 90% of DCI P3 color space and 12 bit depth of colors.

Samsung UN65KS9500 and UN65KS9800 with some technologies behind it like Ultra Clear Panel Ultimate, Supreme UHD Dimming, Auto Depth Enhancer, and technologies mentioned above can reach lower than 0.05 nits of black level and more than 1000 nits of peak brightness or more precisely, UN65KS9500 can reach about 0.015 nits of black level and 1500 nits of peak brightness while UN65KS9800 with higher level technology like we have discussed above certainly can reach more. Moving on color performance, with quantum dot technology behind them, they can cover more than 95% of DCI P3 color space. Additionally, both of these Samsung UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500 also support 10 bit depth of color that means they can deliver about 1.07 billion shades of color. This certainly will make color gradient looks smoother.

Samsung QUantum dot With 10 Bit Panel

With Visual Specs that offered by Samsung UN65KS9500 and UN65KS9500, can be confirmed that both of them meet all of the minimum standardization of HDR 10 set by UHD Alliance for Ultra HD Premium Specification. With other words, both Samsung UN65KS9800 and UN65KS950 are featuring Ultra HD Premium Certification. This means, they can display HDR contents fully without any issue. Even for pea brightness, what produced by them is the brightest between all 2016 lineup. And of course, the picture that produced is also looks stunning with deep black level, strong contrast and rich color. And the amazing picture quality that produced by both of them is not only when they are displaying HDR contents but also standard or SDR contents.

Viewing Angle

Both Samsung UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500 use VA Panel and not as IPS Panel. Although they use curved panel and claimed by Samsung can improve Side viewing angle, nonetheless their viewing angle is weak. It is a weak point of both beside lack of 3D technology. The contrast and color will looks to deteriorate started on 20 degrees off center and front. Maybe the image on the side furthest from the eye would look nicer, but on side nearest from eyes would look worse, even worse than flat panel. But even so, overall, viewing angle of UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500 looks slight better than other model of Samsung flat TV, especially for UN65KS9800 that use Full Array LED Backlighting. The other advantage f curved panel, with the same screen size, the picture will look slightly bigger on curved panel than flat panel.

Motion Handling

Samsung may never be the best when handling motion blur, but at least what performed by Samsung UN65KS9500 and UN65KS9800 when handling motion blur is great. This means there is not much motion blur appears when they are used for watching video contents with fast scenes like sports, fast movies, or video games. And of course these cannot be separated from great performance of Supreme Motion Rate 120 Hz based on native 120 Hz refresh rate panel behind it. Additionally, the perfect performance is also offered by them when handling 24p contents or even via 60i or 60p signals. This means there is no judder when they are playing Blur Ray Movies, Contents from streaming media or Cable/ Satellite TV.

UHD Up-scaling

Considering most of the contents that available in the market still come with lower resolution, of course the great performance of UHD Scaling of 4K TV is still highly needed. Fortunately, both Samsung UN65KS9500 and UN65KS9800 are equipped with great performance UHD Up-scaling engine that does a good job when up-scaling lower resolution to 4K quality. DVDs movies with 480p resolution look very details in 4K quality once it is up-scaled. And of course HD Cable / Satellite TV with 720p resolution will look better in 4K quality on the screen of UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500. Moreover is the resolution of the source is 1080 like Blu Ray Movies, of course the result is much better and clearer without lost in details, even the result is much better than when you are playing it on full HD TV.

Smart TV

In addition to stunning HDR picture quality, Smart TV is the other flagship of Samsung UN65KS9800 and UN65KS9500. With Tizen OS powered by quick quad core processor and in adequate memory space, they offer fast and responsive smart TV platform, even for multi tasking. Its user interface is design very intuitive and user friendly so makes you easy to organize, choose, and launch a app. The loading in time of an app is also very quick, as quick as switching between apps. Tizen OS also provide most useful 4K and HDR Streaming app Like Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube and many others. Additionally, there are also light and fast web browser, screen mirroring, Apps store, Streaming Games Service app like Play Station Now and Gamefly, and many more. Essentially, Tizen OS is smart TV platform with most complete apps.

As a controller, both of them are equipped with Smart Controller with built-in microphone that has voice navigation for change channels, adjust the volume, search on the web, and many other functions. Its physical design is designed more comfort in the hand with all buttons located around where the thumb comes rest. Additionally, it can serve as universal remote and used for controlling other devices once your device connected on your TV with HDMI.

Sound Quality

Although both of them has different speaker configuration and channels of speaker system like we see on comparison table above, but basically, they are offer virtual identical sound quality. With total power speaker 60 watts and 2 built-in woofers, the sound delivered by them is loud enough for a room. Moreover they come with built in Woofer, this certainly makes the low frequency of bass heard more steady. But of course they are slim TV, their sound quality is still not quite enough to match what offered by stand alone sound bar. The use of external sound bar certainly will improve their sound quality.

Connectivity

Like most of top model 4K TVs released in 2016, both Samsung UN65KS9500 and UN65KS9800 are equipped with 4 HDMI Ports and 3 USB Port as their major connectivity. The other inputs/outputs are Ethernet, RS323, RF (Terrestrial), Digital Audio Out (Optical), where the amount of each of them is only one. The difference to other TVs from other manufacturers, all of their HDMI Ports, 2 USB Pot and the RF port are located on One Connect Box, while on the rear panel of TV, there is only 1 USB port and a port that used for One Connect Box Cable.

Conclusion

As mentioned, the main difference between Samsung UN65KS9500 and UN65KS9800 is about Multi Zones Full Array LED Backlighting and the level of Precision Black and Peak Illuminator where all of them have an impact on the contrast of the picture produced, especially in term of contrast. This makes the picture that displayed on the screen of UN65KS9800 looks brighter than what displayed on the screen of UN65KS9500. With all specs that offered by each, both of them featuring Ultra HD Premium Certification set by UHD Alliance. This means when displaying HDR contents, the picture that produced will look very stunning like what the creator intended. And of course, the stunning picture quality that produced by them is not on HDR only, but also on SDR picture. A good performance also offered by then when handling motion blur and u-scaling lower resolution content t 4K quality. And that is not less interesting is about their excellent Tizen OS that offers attractive and responsive smart TV platform with tons of useful apps.

But as the top model 4K TVs, lack of 3D technology certainly is a big downside of both considering most of the competitors already come with 3D technology. In other side, although Samsung has claimed that the use of curved panel can improve the viewing angle, in fact, their viewing angle is still weak. Sound quality is impressive for a slim TV, still can be improved by adding external sound bar.

So, which is a better choice between them? As mentioned in the market, Samsung UN65KS9800 is sold about $3500 while uUN65KS9500 is sold about $1000 cheaper. With the difference in performance that offered by them, of course it is also comparable with their difference in price. Now the decision comes back to you according to your budgets. If you have extra money, you can try to choose Samsung UN65KS9800 as the brightest TV in 2016. But even so, Samsung UN65KS9500 is also not a bad choice considering it also featuring Ultra HD Premium Certification. But even so, before you decide to choose one of them, there are many opinions from their real customers that you can make them as your further consideration.

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